Bride and Prejudice

That's right, Jane Austen gets the Bollywood treatment in this colourful but oddly polite romantic musical comedy, which never deigns to take much of a risk. Roughly following the basic template laid down by Austen, Gurinder Chadha's film lacks bite, with its eagerness to please somewhat overbearing. Mr and Mrs Bakshi (Kher and Babbar) are the proud parents of four beautiful daughters and wish to seem them married to the best husbands available. An opportunity presents itself when an English millionaire (Andrews) arrives in India for a wedding, and soon falls for the eldest girl Jaya (Shirodkar). His best mate, a hotel heir (unconvincingly played by the wooden Henderson) falls for the nest sister, the feisty Lalita (Rai), but he soon discovers that she's quite a handful. Throw in a couple of pedestrian romantic entanglements by way of several well choreographed song and dance numbers and that's the basic formula of Bride and Prejudice.

Though the film's energy and flamboyance is never in question, its sense of drive and purpose certainly is. Chadha's motivations in exposing the world to the brash exuberance of Bollywood may be an honourable one, but the film's reliance on style and narrative convenience overwrites any lasting impact. It may look rather nice, and the cast are attractive and talented, but there's more substance in a feather.